The Puffer Forum

Thanks for all of your help, I think I am going to try and adjust the light cycle to more of what I am experiencing to see if he is just tired from not enough night time. I am also going to cut back on his feedings and see what happens when I introduce some live foods in 3 or four days. I am hoping one or the combination of things will help him get out of his slump!

Any thoughts on doing these changes all at once? I don't think skipping a meal will hurt him but changing the light cycle and maybe the tank set up, anyone think that it will be too much? I don't want to stress him out.

As far as his size I knew that he would get to be about 18 inches at some point honestly he is about the same size as the day I got him.

I always enjoy reading what Neale Monks has to say -- it always makes sense, and makes me analyse my own situation.

You're a darn sensible guy Mr Monks!!!

In regards to your question kingFUGU, maybe your puffer needs a jolt, and therefore making all these changes at the same time could be just what might do that for him. I really do hope you sort the situation and your Fahaka gets back to being the puffer you initially had.

All the best!

Kind of you to say so!

Cheers, Neale

pufferpuggirl wrote:I always enjoy reading what Neale Monks has to say -- it always makes sense, and makes me analyse my own situation.
You're a darn sensible guy Mr Monks!!!

nmonks wrote:Kind of you to say so!

Cheers, Neale

pufferpuggirl wrote:I always enjoy reading what Neale Monks has to say -- it always makes sense, and makes me analyse my own situation.
You're a darn sensible guy Mr Monks!!!

Thanks again for all of the help great advise across the board, looks like I have a lot of work to do tonight. I will keep you posted with progress and hopefully Chongo will be back to his old personality soon.

kingFUGU wrote: Thanks again for all of the help great advise across the board, looks like I have a lot of work to do tonight. I will keep you posted with progress and hopefully Chongo will be back to his old personality soon.

Good luck!

Three cheers for Neale!

Update,
Did some visual test he responds and moves his eyes around. Doesn't seem like he is blind. I also did some more research maybe I wasn't being clear. Chongo was about 6 inches when I got him so they told me about 2 years old then. I have havd him for about two years. So all in all he is around 4 now. From what I have found out the puffers tend to get very lazy in older aged and tend to be no as aggressive as when they were young. More of a lay and wait type hunter in the later years. Can any one verify ths with their own experience?

Hummm....I honestly think it has everthing to do with feeding amounts and his diet. I'd think if they did get lazy when they were older it would be more than 4 years...fahaka's live for 15 years so he's still pretty young

I honestly think this is a diet and feeding timing issues. When I mentioned live foods I should have said to not use feeder fish for the reasons Neale stated. I do use them but, I use Mollies that I have had for years and breed on their own. I only use the fry that are fed a very nutritious diet and feed them once every few months for my truly piscivorous species (Suvatti) to give them natural stimulation.

I would start with holding out the food for a while and see if that makes a difference, only one change at a time.

While I don't like to use live feeder fish myself, whenever I've written on the topic, I've always tried to separate the ethical from the practical arguments. If you are happy with the ethics of feeding live fish, then using them as you describe here is precisely how it should be done. Livebearers apparently don't contain thiaminase or much fat, and they're easily gut-loaded with plant-based foods (this latter critical to supplying vitamins that come from plant rather than animal foods). There are unquestionably situations where live feeder fish are essential. The problem is that mostly they're not, and the aquarists using goldfish to feed oscars, lionfish, gar and so on are simply creating problems for themselves in the long term.

When it comes to stimulation, I personally prefer to train my predators to be hand fed. Using forceps you can usually feed even skittish things like pike characins that won't take food from your fingertips. Once you have them feeding this way, it's easy to move the food about, "tease" them with it, get them to snap at it a few times, and generally make them work for their dinner.

It's an illusion to assume they'll ever get anything like the exercise they'd get in the wild, but I'm more interested in getting fish reacting to me than anything else. There's a practical reason for this. If your fish "beg" for food, or come to me when they see me outside the tank, it's easy to check on their health. It also encourages them to view me as the focal point of their lives rather than each other, and that, I think, reduces things like aggression.

Cheers, Neale

Dadof4 wrote:When I mentioned live foods I should have said to not use feeder fish for the reasons Neale stated. I do use them but, I use Mollies that I have had for years and breed on their own. I only use the fry that are fed a very nutritious diet and feed them once every few months for my truly piscivorous species (Suvatti) to give them natural stimulation.

See --- the man ALWAYS makes sense!!! I keep trying to find something that I don't agree with or something that's not quite right, and I just can't find it! Darn Neale, when are you going to write a book on puffers? Or at least puffer health? I think it would be very well received, and we need more books with pictures of puffers, can't get enough pictures!!

KingFugu hasn't givin us an update today...hope everything is going well....

How kind!

Actually, I do have a whole chapter of pufferfish in my Brackish Water Fishes book. There are at least two pufferfish books already on the market. One is by Klaus Ebert and published by Aqualog, and the other by Chris Ralph and published by Practical Fishkeeping. The Aqualog book is very good in terms of pictures and species identification, but quite pricey. The PFK one is a fun read, but it does have some errors.

Cheers, Neale

pufferpuggirl wrote:See --- the man ALWAYS makes sense!!! I keep trying to find something that I don't agree with or something that's not quite right, and I just can't find it! Darn Neale, when are you going to write a book on puffers? Or at least puffer health? I think it would be very well received, and we need more books with pictures of puffers, can't get enough pictures!!

Actually Neale, I have your book, the Aqualog book, and the PFK one too. Thing is, no offense, but yours is only about the brackish species, the Aqualog doesn't really address illnesses and internal parasites, etc., and like you said, the PFK one might be cute, but it's not really a "reference" book.

I just thought with your knowledge of puffer biology, and the way you've been able to explain things on here, it might be a good idea for a book. There's really nothing in print that tells us about feeding puffers, or about the thiaminase problem, or any really good information on internal parasites. It would be nice to have something to refer to when there's problems. Sort of a "trouble-shooting" guide for puffer keepers, if you will.

Antoehr update:
Day 2 no food has been fed. I changed the tank around and he has started to swim and investigate the new surrounding. Also with not feeding him he is starting to eye up the Danios that have been in there for a few months now. I am starting to feel that it was me over feeding and allowing him to be lazy. I will continue to give updates as I see change. Sunday will be the true test I have a fiddler crab with his name on it.